Wednesday 13th November 2013

Character Designs

Today I began looking at cats as I intend to have one as the protagonist of my animation. To start with I looked at images of real life cats and also some drawings. I mainly looked at cats walking as I feel the hardest task of the animation would be to create a walk cycle. This is because I need to animated 4 legs compared to 2 legs, if I had a human as my character.

From the still images I have looked at I can get a rough idea of how the cats walk, however, I felt that I should look at some animated walk cycles to get a better understanding and to use as a reference when I begin my animation.

 Although it's not really a animation of a cat, it does have the same walk cycle. By watching this animation I can see how the walk cycle occurs with 4 legged animals. It's almost like there is an imaginary mirror dividing the front legs and the back legs. For example when the left leg (front) goes forward, the back left leg goes backwards. When the front left leg goes backwards, the back left leg comes forwards. The same occurs on with the right legs. Knowing this will help me with the walk cycle as I know how each leg should act. There is also a noticeable bounce with the walk which I should make sure I include.

Whilst I was looking at some walking animations, I felt that I should also have a look at how cats are animated in Japanese animation (anime). There is an anime called Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo which I know has plenty of animated cats so I felt I should check out a few gifs.

I found these two gifs of the anime which show a little bit of animation of the cats. The first one has a walk cycle which will be very useful as I can see the posture of a variety of different sized cats as well as useful for making the walk cycle itself. The second gif isn't as useful however it does show me that when the cats head moves, the tail also moves. The body however doesn't move so when at a stand still I won't have to worry about animating the body.

Whilst I was looking at some animations of cats, I got recommended to watch Simon's Cat. Simon's Cat is a popular animation on YouTube which is just have short skits involving a cat and its owner. These animations use most of the techniques we learned prior to this task (Walk Cycles, Facial Expressions, Squash and Stretch) and can be useful for me to use as a reference when I begin my animation. The animations will be a good reference for how the cat jumps, walks, and any other movements.

 

Tuesday 12th November 2013

Ideas Generation

Today I began my ideas generation for my 2D animation. I have only managed to come up with 1 idea so far but I feel I have enough basic planning to elaborate further. The idea I have come up with so far is a cat walking through the streets whilst the weather is constantly changing. Its a rather basic idea considering the requirement of using the seasons, however, I feel I should be able to execute this and also test my abilities using Adobe Flash and Adobe Photoshop.

 

Influences

Let's start with how I came to this idea. My main influences are these two stop-motion animations: Sorry I'm Late & Her Morning Elegance. Although these are stop-motion animations I really like the style of how they have been done. The one camera angle view works really well in these animations and it is similar to how I want to have my animation. I want to have my cat walking along the streets and interacting with objects it passes as well as being affected by the change in weather.

In the animation 'Sorry I'm Late' the man is making his way home but each method of transport either fails him or he needs to change due to other limitations. For example at first the man starts riding a bike, but because he went too high after going over a hill the bike got stuck in a tree. Later on he tries to take a hot balloon home but a stormy occurs and he has to change transport again. 

With my animation I don't plan on having the cat constantly changing method of transport, instead I want the weather to affect how the cat will adapt to the situation. Like finding shelter whilst it rains to avoid getting soaked, or holding onto a lamppost to avoid getting blown away in the wind.

Incorporation of the seasons

Each season will be represented by the weather. The weather in each season will be:

• Spring - Rain and Sun
• Summer - Sun
• Autumn - Wind and Rain
• Winter - Snow

Each season will also get corresponding backgrounds to enhance the expression of the seasons. The sky will be the biggest representation of the season (excluding the weather) but the houses and other background environments will also represented a season.

• Spring - The sky is fairly blue with a few clouds. During the rain the sky will be consisting of light/dark shades of grey. Flowers and tress will begin to bud.
• Summer - Clear blue sky throughout the season. Some houses will have sprinklers in the gardens going off.
• Autumn - Cloudy sky throughout the season, clouds get darker during the rain. Red/Brown leaves scatter across the floor. Houses will have a Halloween decoration halfway through the season. Trees do not have leaves.
• Winter - White sky throughout the season. Environment is covered in a layer of snow. Houses are also decorated for Christmas.

I also need to transition between each season so that it seems like one endless cycle. This can be accomplished pretty easily.

• Spring to Summer - The sky becomes a clear blue sky with very few clouds being seen.
• Summer to Autumn - Wind starts to occur and clouds fill the sky. The ground is also littered by leaves. Trees and flowers begin to shed leaves.
• Autumn to Winter - Ground and backgrounds begin to get covered by snow. The sky begins to fade into a clear white with hints of light grey clouds.
• Winter to Spring - The snow on the ground begins to melt away. Flowers begin to bud. The sky changes from white to blue with some clouds.

As of right now I am unsure which season I should begin with. I am thinking of starting in Spring and finishing in Winter, however, I am likely to change this.

Outline of Idea

As I have stated at the beginning of this blog entry, the idea for this animation is going to be about a cat walking the streets whilst the weather and seasons are constantly changing around it. The idea itself stems from the fact that most cats wonder around outside with their owners oblivious to what the cat is doing. The influences of 'Sorry I'm Late' & 'Her Morning Elegance' helped me with how I want to style me animation, using only one camera angle to follow the events of the main character.

To begin the animation I will have the cat curled up and then stands up to begin the walk. As I have mentioned I am unsure with the beginning season but for the purpose of explaining the idea I'll begin with Spring. The cat will walk past houses, possibly stopping at one point to smell a bouquet of flowers. During the walk it will encounter a rain shower so it'll take shelter somewhere, e.g. a bus stop. Another encounter will be with a road that it'll need to stop at because of cars going past.

The season will then transition into Summer where the cat will start to walk on walls and other objects. However, the sun will take its effect on the cat so it'll need to drink water from somewhere, e.g. a sprinkler in the garden of a house or a pond in a field. Walking through the field the cat will become slightly exhausted at this point and take a short nap.

This will then transition into the Autumn season and the leaves will begin to litter the ground. The cat will have woken up during the transition and continued its walk. As the leaves begin to hit the ground the cat will go out of its way to step on some leaves to hear the satisfying crunch sound. The cat will eventually walk back into the streets after spending a little while in a field and a strong wind will roll in. The wind will be strong enough to blow the cat backwards, however, it will quickly grab hold of a lamppost to avoid being blown back even further. After the wind subsides, the houses will start to become more decorative as it nears Halloween. Halloween will pass and rain will begin to fall quite heavily, again the cat will need to find some shelter until the storm passes.

Once the storm does pass, Winter rolls around so snow begins to line the streets. At the same time houses once again get decorative for the festive season. The cat will enjoy jumping in the snow but at one point it jumps into a pile too deep and disappears. But I intend to do the cartoon like effect where the eyes are still visible through the snow. The cat will them make it's way out where a silhouette of Santa and his sleigh will go across the sky. A present will fall in front of the cat and that is where (possibly) the animation will end.